Februari 28, 2017
- [voiceover] do you think that camels store water in their hump? or that bats are blind? and crocodile tears are for real? well, you're in for a big surprise as we count down the top 10most extreme animal myths to discover which popular fact is the biggest load of fiction. find out if you really can teach
an old dog new tricks, when animal myths are taken to the most extreme. earth is a planet of extremes. extreme places (techno music) and extreme animals. but some animals aremore extreme than others. (dramatic techno music)
join us as we count down to find the most unusual,the most extraordinary, the most extreme. (balloons popping) (upbeat jamboree music) we've always had a healthyappetite for tall tales. even if sometimes they area little hard to swallow. and when people don't let facts get in the way of a good story,
an old wive's tale is born. (chickens clucking) although not all mythsare based on idle gossip, we're counting down tofind the urban legend that should be taken withthe biggest grain of salt, and we begin with the outlandish story of a jumbo-sized memory. - [tumma] four, seven, nine, five-- - [voiceover] how wouldyou like to be able
to recite a list of 32 numbers after hearing them just once? - [voiceover] read them back to me. - [voiceover] it's noproblem for 13-year-old mathematical prodigy, tumma kranthi kiran. and, just for fun hecan repeat them again, backwards. - [tumma] five, three, six, five, two, one,
four, eight, nine, four -- - [voiceover] no wonder people say he has a memory like an elephant. so, is it true? does an elephant reallyhave an amazing memory? to find out, we need to discover what goes on inside that massive head. not surprisingly, the elephant has the biggest brain of any land mammal.
they have about the same number of brain cells as humans, but they're not as densely packed. so in some ways, we really could have a memory like an elephant. people say that elephants never forget, and it's kind of true. their lives depend upontheir remarkable ability to store and retrieve
vital information about their world. the matriarch of theherd carries a mental map of a home range that can extend over an area the size of rhode island. the elephant's survival depends on her ability to remember the location of every feeding ground and watering hole. elephants can also remember and identify
the noises made by at least100 other adult females. each unique call allowsthe herd to stay in contact when visually separated in dense forest, and means they can identify elephants from outside their family network. the social system of elephantsis incredibly complex. they must be able to remember their place in a hierarchy that radiatesout from families, to the clan, and on to include independent males
and other populations. one researcher has witnesseda mother and daughter obviously remembering each other after being separated for 23 years. elephants are not bornwith all this knowledge. it's acquired over many years of watching and learningfrom the rest of the herd. so, for the firstcontender in our countdown of extreme animal myths,
we can safely say that it's, true. elephants do havephenomenally good memories. however, as the countdown continues, we'll discover that the talltales get increasingly twisted. (upbeat techno music) when it comes to crying, some people really go to town. (crying) but not all tears mean thatpeople are genuinely upset.
sometimes, they can be faking it. - i just can't understand, it's not possible. - [voiceover] if you'rejust pretending to be sad, you're said to be crying crocodile tears. so is it true? are crocodiles really cry babies? the belief that crocodilesproduce fake tears as they consume their victims
has been around for centuries. but do remorseful reptiles really exist? or are their tears a real crock? to find out, you need to take a close look at what happens when a croc goes hunting. (dramatic, suspenseful music) (water splashing) it seems that crocodile tears are more about greed than grief.
crocodiles can't chew. they have to rip their food into chunks and swallow it whole. the glands that keep their eyes moist are close to their throats, so the effort of swallowingforces tears into their eyes. just like humans, tearskeep the eyes lubricated and free from bacteria. but it's a reflex, not remorse.
so it seems that the tearsof a crocodile are real, but what about the tears of a statue? (bell ringing) do you believe in modern day miracles? sometimes religious icons and statues can appear to weep. (dramatic music) could these tears be a sign that something miraculous is taking place?
or is it condensation caused by changes in humidity and temperature? (dramatic organ music) for the faithful, there's no doubt that these are definitelynot crocodile tears. crocodiles are numbernine in the countdown because the myth aboutthem crying is true. partly. they do shed tears, but not of emotion.
after all, they really are just cold-blooded killers. it seems that the myths aboutour first two contenders had some basis in fact, but as our countdown continues, the truth gets twisted at a teaparty where not everybody is mad. and what myth has sent one creature
completely over the edge? to find the nextcontender in our countdown we need to take a tripthrough the looking glass. - oh! - [voiceover] alice met all kinds of crazy creatures in wonderland. but the maddest of them all had four legs, and very long ears. - and the froggy, and humpty dumpty,
and the mock turtle, and the march hare, and everybody else! - [voiceover] regardlessof their mental state, you won't find many hares at tea parties. they're normally shy, solitary creatures. so why do people thinkthat march hares are mad? (dark, suspenseful music) the belief that europeanhares go a little crazy during the month of march hasbeen with us for centuries.
and it's easy to see why. because at the start ofspring, their behavior changes. instead of being quiet and shy, hares appear to go a little nuts. a surge in hormonesmeans that males go mad trying to find as many mates as possible. and then, the boxing matches begin. (upbeat music) for a long time, this was thoughtto be just males fighting,
but recently, researchers discovered that it's the female that's hitting the male. she's either not ready to mate, or is testing his determination. so the mad behavior actuallymakes perfect sense. she's just trying to find thebest father for her babies. strangely enough, there's another myth about reproductive successthat also makes perfect sense. have you heard what happensto the human population
nine months after a major blackout? the story began on the night the lights went out in new york. (electricity surge) - [voiceover] one moment newyork was glittering gotham, the great white way ablaze, the next moment only flickering candles, automobile headlights,and bobbing flashlights were probing a stygian darkness.
- [voiceover] on november 9th, 1965, new york city came to a standstill for 10 long hours. and then nine months later, stories began to circulate of a dramatic increasein the number of births. so is it true that whenthe lights went out, new yorkers created a little baby boom? sadly, no.
a comprehensive study in the 70's revealed that the blackout causedabsolutely no increase in birth rates. but even today, nine monthsafter blackouts and blizzards, you can still find reports of a baby boom circulating in the media. (baby crying) it seems that the story ofhumans breeding like rabbits has even less basis in fact than the myth
at number eight in the countdown. after all, it's only partially true that march hares are occasionally mad. if you were surrounded bytestosterone-fueled males, you'd probably be a little crazy, too. so far, we've seen that the myths in the countdown are not completely bogus. but will this change whenwe go knocking on the door of the world's sleepiest meteorologist?
and is it true that a bug can crawl into your ear and eat your brain? there's only one reason people go knocking on the door of mister groundhog. on february the 2nd,everybody wants to know if spring is really here. the story goes that if thegroundhog doesn't see his shadow, he remains outside becausespring has arrived early. but if his shadow appears,
then he's scared straightback to the burrow for six more weeks of winter. so is there any truth to thegroundhog's shadowy reputation? can he really predict the weather? to find out, take a trip topunxsutawney, pennsylvania. it's home to one of america'smost famous rodents. a groundhog by the nameof punxsutawney phil. he's the only mammal to havea day named in his honor, because this is no ordinary groundhog.
every year on the 2nd of february, phil makes his famousannual weather prophecy at gobbler's knob. phil whispers his weather prediction into the ear of his keepers. bill cooper, president of punxsutawney groundhogclub's inner circle, says the groundhog has anestablished track record as a furry barometer.
- groundhog day came to usthrough the european settlers that settled in this part of pennsylvania. folklore said if thehedgehog saw his shadow, we'd have six moreweeks of winter weather. but when they came to america, we don't have hedgehogs, but we do have plentifulamount of groundhogs and he became the marmot of choice to predict the arrival of spring.
- [voiceover] all marmots,including the groundhog, are big, furry rodents. and they live in someof the most impressive, alpine real estate in the world. however, the 14 different species found in the northern hemisphere, don't have much time to kick back, relax, and admire the scenery. every spring and summer,
marmots take part in a race against time. they're eating for their lives. literally. each day, a marmot can munch its way through an amount of food equivalent to one third of its body weight. this gluttony is essentialif it's to build enough bulk to survive the winter, because it won't get to eatagain 'til the following spring.
by the time snow blankets the mountains, the marmots are already tuckedup in the family burrow. they sleep away the winter by hibernating. their temperature drops from36 degrees to less than four. their heart rate falls from 250beats per minute to just 10. and in deep hibernation, they'll only draw breathonce every six minutes. and when it wakes up, do theyreally predict the weather? well, they are respondingto seasonal changes
in light and temperature that give them a cuethat spring has arrived. so it could be said that they are a kind of barometer. - well, what do you see here, big guy? what's your feeling? - [voiceover] so has realitybeen overshadowed by a myth? does the groundhog predict spring, or just react to the change in seasons?
well, as far as the people ofpunxsutawney are concerned, it doesn't really matter. they know phil's a marmot,not a meteorologist. - what we tell people is, there are a lot of seriousand important things in life, and groundhog day is not one of them. it's just serious fun. - [voiceover] there are all kinds of fun and games when wemeet the sixth contender
in our countdown of extreme animal myths. after all, pin the tailon the donkey is easy, until you become as blind as a small, nocturnal flying mammal. are bats really blind? in the past, people thought that bats must have great eyesight tobe able to see in the dark. certainly researchers havehad no trouble proving that somehow, bats cannegotiate an obstacle course.
so what happened whenthey blindfolded the bat? obviously, bats don't need their eyes to detect the world around them. bats navigate by emittinghigh-intensity pulses of sound, and listen to the echoes thatbounce back from objects. their sophisticated sonarcan even detect things as small as a strand of spider silk. (chirping) by painting pictures withsound, bats are far from blind.
yet, according to another myth, there's a differentway to see in the dark. in world war ii, britain haddeveloped a top secret device that gave them earlywarnings of aerial attacks. their radar stations coulddetect incoming planes, even on the darkest night. to keep the enemy guessing about the nature of their secret weapon, british intelligence created a rumor.
the increase in the number of planes being shot down was because british pilots had enhanced their nightvision by eating carrots. (planes flying) even though there's very little evidence that eating carrots candramatically improve your vision, they got such good publicity that soon everybody was crunching their way to better eyesight.
the myth lives on today. as does the idea that bats must be blind, since they navigate withsound, not their eyes. this, however, is false. their eyes may often be small, but they're fully functional, and thanks to their sonar system, they don't need to eat carrotsto improve their vision. our last two contenders have shown
that sometimes people never let facts get in the way of a good story. so does that mean that you really can't teach an old dog new tricks? and later, we'll discover if you need a pump to fill up a hump. (sirens) a city the size of new york
is home to any number of urban legends. but coming in at numberfive in our countdown of extreme myths. is one one of the shaggiestdog stories of them all. it's said that you can'tteach an old dog new tricks and that's bad news for jencushner and her canine companion because gypsy has issues. - gypsy's a wonderful dog. she's very social, she's very sweet.
very enthusiastic. perhapsa little too enthusiastic and because of it, she likes to jump up. no, no. (dog barking) - so, jen and gypsy havecalled in the experts. - hey. - hey, victoria. - how you doing? oh, gypsy!
hey, gypsy. what's up? i see she's still upto her old tricks here with the jumping. - meet animal behavior counselor and star of animalprecinct, victoria wells. she knows that to train a dog you have to know how tocommunicate with them. - same old thing. ha ha!- same problem.
- and a handful of fooddoesn't go astray either. - so here's some slimy hot dogs. (laughs) - god! - i know, i know! all right, gypsy. all right. you ready? there's so many dogs in this city that jump up on people and since it's socongested in new york city,
you can't have themjumping all over the place. so that is the number onething people come to me to fix. - hi, victoria. - hey. (laughs) how are you, gypsy? oh, gypsy. any behavior that you'retraining your dog to do, it doesn't happen overnight, you know.
people want results quick, but it really takes practiceevery day for a little bit. just fifteen minutes. it takes about two weeks forthe behavior to become solid. see? that's what you want to see. - ok, sit. - there you go. - when it comes to teachingnew tricks to old dogs, diet can make all the difference.
scientific studies have provedthat a dog's ability to learn does decrease with age. however, new research has shown that a diet fortified by fruits,vegetables, and vitamins, can help keep the brain in tip top shape. it's believed that thesefoods rich in antioxidants reduce the aging effectsof harmful free radicals in the brain of both dogs and humans. the belief that what youeat affects how you think
is nothing new. centuries ago, theegyptians thought that fish was a brain food, and it turns out theywere right on the money. fish contains high levelsof omega 3 fatty acids, which help build brain cells. a recent study in chicagofound that people over 65 who ate omega 3-rich fishat least twice a week were 60% less likely todevelop alzheimer's disease.
and this is one dog that's been eating all the right brain food. - well, jen. now that gypsy iscured of all jumping issues, wouldn't it be fun to teach her to jump over appropriate things? jump. good girl. jump. good. now she's getting into it. jump. jump.
yeah! just people can change. dogs can change. so you can teach an old dog new tricks. okay, so it's your turn. cause i can do it, but itreally has to be you doing it. - jump. (laughs) - so it seems that this myth is false. as long as you're preparedto put in some hard work and some good food.
(laughing) hopping in to number four in the countdown is the chicken. since they were firstdomesticated in asia, perhaps more than 9,000 years ago, you'd think we'd know all there is to know about our feathered friends. so why is it that peoplecontinue to believe that hens' teeth are really scarce?
it's true that adult birds don't use teeth to chew their food. it's all ground up in a muscular part of their digestive tract called a gizzard. but things are very differentwhen hens are young. chickens are trapped insidea remarkably strong shell. it provides great protectionuntil it's time to get out. so the chicken has an escape plan. a small egg tooth growson the end of its beak.
it also has enlarged neck muscles to help drive the tiny tooththrough the shell to freedom. (shell cracking) every chicken, male and female, is born with this tooth. so in reality, hens teethare not rare at all. at least not when they're young. and while the egg toothfalls off after a few days, there was a time when all adultbirds sported toothy grins.
take a close look at the fossil record and you'll see that 150 million years ago, the ancestor of today's birds looked something like this. called archeopteryx, thisflying dinosaur had feathers, claws, and a beak fullof cone-shaped teeth. archeopteryx may have fallen off its perch millions of years ago, but its dna lives on in thegenetic blueprint of all birds.
and scientists suspect thatdna may just hold the answer to baldness. so what's the connection between chickens and human cue balls? scientists have discoveredthat chickens still have all the genetic informationthey need to grow teeth. the gene has been inactivein birds for 70 million years but recently, researchers have managed to reactivate the dna.
they were able to growchicken embryos with teeth. if scientists can identify and understand the gene that controls hens' teeth, then in theory, it shouldbe possible to reactivate similar genes in humans. perhaps one day a drug will be developed to reactivate hair follicles. for the estimated 40 million american men facing the future with shiny skulls,
this could be hair raising news indeed. well we're still a long way off understanding the human genetic code. there's no doubt about the validity of the flights of fancycoming up in the countdown. so far we've learned thetruth about toothy chicks and dogs learning tricks, but still to come how do you explain peopleinfluencing machines
using nothing but the power of their mind? and is it possible that some people could really have bugs on the brain? for the next contender on our countdown of extreme myths, the desert is the last placeyou want an empty hump. (bells ringing) can camels really storewater in their hump? it's a great story, but thereality is far stranger.
it's true that even in a scorching desert a camel can survive for up to seven days without drinking water, but that's not because itcarries a reservoir on its back. the camel's hump is actuallya giant mound of fat. often weighing up to 35 kilograms. like most animals, humans store their fat mixed in with muscle tissue or in a layer just beneath the skin.
only camels pile some of it all together into one big lump. so while the hump doesn't store water, it does store food by breakingdown its massive fat reserve, the camel can get enough energy to survive for up to three weeks without eating. unlike camels, mosthumans don't like having big lumps of fat on their bodies. - the battle of the bulges.
and here are some of thelatest mechanized units on maneuvers or rather, womaneuvers. we've come up with allkinds of ways to lose lard and created a host of fantastic myths. one of the biggest is thatexercise is a fabulous way to lose weight. walking or running 1,500 metersburns about 100 calories. sit in a chair for the same time and you'd burn about 60 calories.
but that doesn't mean dietersshould give up on exercise. if you run 8,000 meters instead of 1,500 you'll burn 500 calories. what's more, when you're unfit, your body tends to burnmostly carbohydrates and not fat. when you're in good condition, your muscles adapt using anenzyme that oxidizes fat. when we exercise, thething we lose the most of
is actually sweat. unlike a camel. thanks to a unique internal thermostat, a camel needs a body temperature of more than 40 degreesbefore it breaks into a sweat. and that's why the camel is number three in the countdown. it doesn't need to store water in its hump because its found extreme ways to conserve
its body fluids. it has super efficientkidneys that produce urine that's as thick as syrup. it's bowels extract so much water that you can use cameldung as fuel for a fire. but even with all thesewater conservation tricks, camels can still workup an extreme thirst. they can chug down about100 liters in 10 minutes. just don't go thinking thatthey store it in their hump.
(screaming) they've got too many legs. they skitter, scurry, and squirm. perhaps that's why we'vealways been so willing to believe the very worst about a bug. especially a bug that'ssaid to crawl into your ear and eat your brain. crawling in to number two in the countdown
is a bug with a reputationthat's truly terrifying. it's the earwig. it's said to be fatallyattracted to our ears. isn't that where an earwiglikes to lay its eggs? eggs that will eventually hatch into bugs that eat their way into our brain. to find out if it's true, we need to take a closelook inside our head. it's no myth that the occasional insect
could blunder into our ear hole. but a quick trip down the ear canal shows that it's impossible for an insect to eat into our head. perhaps it could chew throughthe delicate ear drum, but not even the hungriestbug could reach the brain because it's protected bya very thick layer of bone. so how did earwigs getsuch a bad reputation? especially since they preferliving in rotting vegetation,
not human brains. the answer is largely thanksto their unfortunate name. the word, "earwig" isthought to be a corruption of the saxon word,"earwicga" or ear insect. that's because a long time ago, someone must have taken a close look at the insect's hind wings. somebody must have made the connection that when you stretchout the wing membrane,
it bears an uncannyresemblance to the human ear. it's amazing how quickly myths can become established as truth. however, there are some peoplewith an insatiable appetite for separating fiction from fact. if the truth is out there, they'll find it at the princeton engineeringanomalies research laboratory. is there any such thingas mind over matter? can human consciousnessinfluence machines?
these are just some of thequestions the lab has spent over a quarter of acentury trying to answer. one experiment hasvolunteers testing the myth that they can influencea random number generator using nothing but thepower of their minds. this machine is little morethan an electronic coin flipper. designed to come up withas many heads as tails. it sounds like somethingstraight from a starwars movie where jedi knights usethe force to move objects,
yet analysis of the resultssuggests that participants can mentally influence therandom number generators. similar experimentsinvolve trying to influence the height of a water fountain and the direction inwhich a robot will travel. all these machines areprogrammed for random movement but sit a warm body in front of them and they do seem to obligingly respond to the person's intentions.
laboratory manager brendadunne says the results raise as many questions as answers. - we're not seeingdramatic monumental changes in the observable world, but we are seeing subtle changes, which over long periods of time and over large data bases,compound to, statistically, very significant and highly unlikely effects that are...
they're real. but how do you explain them? while the princetonresearchers are still puzzled by the results of their experiments, it's just as difficultto explain the earwig's bad reputation. especially since the femalewas one of the best mothers in the bug world. she's one of the fewinsects that hang around
to look after her babies. so when it comes tohaving bugs on the brain, the earwig is completely innocent. but not even this caring mom can compete with the manufactured myth that's tainted by thereputation of the animal that's number one in the countdown. we've seen the nine contenders. they've all been victims ofoutrageous gossip and innuendo.
only one animal's reputation has been more on the line. to uncover the most extreme animal myth, we need to take a tripto the arctic tundra. this is home to the most malignedcreature in the countdown. it's the lemming. for years people have believed that swarms of these small rodentscommit a spectacular form of mass suicide.
(suspenseful music) - this strange instinct defies all logic. like people crowded in cities, the lack of privacy seemsto drive them to aggression. suddenly they can't stand their neighbors, and in an effort to get away from it all, they begin to run. anywhere. as long as it's someplace else.
and for many, it leads to disaster. - but do hoards of lemmingsreally throw themselves off a cliff to drown in the sea? or is this the greatestman made myth ever? it is true that every threeor four years in some regions localized populations of lemmings will drop almost to extinction and then just as quicklyrocket back up again. nobody knows for surewhat causes these surges,
but when a colony startsto become overcrowded, lemmings hit the road. these mass migrations spawned the myth because in peak years, thousandsof lemmings do spread out to find new territories, but they're running to getaway from intense competition, not to self destruct. each lemming needs merely onehectare of tundra to call home and they won't find it byjumping off a cliff into the sea.
so where did the myth come from? we have to travel back to the 1950's, where a film crew was making a documentary on lemmings in alberta, canada. they filmed a migrationsequence by placing lemmings on a snow covered turntable. then, to add a little drama, they went outside and herded the lemmings towards a cliff by a river.
the good news is thatcontrary to popular opinion, lemmings don't really throwthemselves off cliffs. thanks to the filmmakersconfusing mass migration for mass suicide, lemmings got stuck with reputations as mindless automatons with a death wish, but nothing could befurther from the truth. it's not the lemmingsthat go over the top. it's humans that arewilling to believe any tale
no matter how far fetched. and that's why when itcomes to animal myths, the lemming really is the most extreme.
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